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been my experience, for I have always found that superstition 

 has been the chief cause, and have been told time after time 

 by the natives that as soon as they vacate a dwelling the evil 

 spirit takes up his abode therein, and they cannot be induced 

 to enter the shelters again under any consideration. 



Fire Sticks. — They always carry a lighted stick, or one or 

 two if there is a large party on the move, taking it in turns to 

 carry the torch, which is swayed about to keep it burning. 

 This points to the fact that the process of making fire is a 

 difficult one, and that they go to great pains to avoid it. Upon 

 being requested to make fire, an old native took his spear- 

 thrower and struck a piece of hard stone with the chisel-shaped 

 flint attached to the handle-end of the "mira" ; sparks were 

 certainly produced, but he had no tinder, nor did he show how 

 the sparks were caught. Many of the men and women had 

 large scars upon their bodies, in somie instances quite raw ones 

 were seen upon the children. Upon making inquiry, it was 

 found that this was caused through the agency of fire by rolling 

 on to the embers during sleep. 



Ceremonial Dances. — I was present at several of these, 

 which were quite new to me, not having seen the same per- 

 formances with any other tribe. One had only three dancers 

 (young men of twenty-five to thirty) ; their hair was bound up 

 with hair string and protruding a great distance at the back, 

 being decorated with hawks' feathers ; their bodies were red- 

 dened wich ochre, and two half -circular lines of white down 

 from the wedge-tailed eagle adorned their chests ; large tufts 

 of white down were attached to the pubic hairs, a wand was 

 carried made from a straight gum-bough, and was about 

 4 ft. 6 in. long, a bunch of leaves being left at the top, and 

 from that down the bark was stripped off clean, the bare wood" 

 being smeared with human blood, and evidently while the 

 blood \vas wet three rings of white dowm had been stuck on. 

 The women, men, and children sang a low, monotonous song, 

 almost in a whisper at first, but after a time it swelled in 

 volume and became louder and louder, many of the singers 

 keeping time by beating the ground with their short-pointed 

 sticks. When the song had reached its highest pitch the three^ 

 performers dashed out of the scrub (which was wrapped in 

 darkness) into the bare space in front of the fires and singing 

 loudly, keeping time by stamping the ground with great force 

 with the right foot. They stood in the same place for some 

 time, and soon had a hole stamped in the sandy soil 8 in. or 

 10 in. deep. The song died away in cadence and became lower 

 and lower. The performers had been facing the east; they 

 now turned to the west, still stamping vigorously, this time 

 with the left foot. When the song had died down to a mere^ 



